[technomancy]

> Just pause the VM with the browser in it -> 0 % CPU, but can still read what's on the display.

On a related note, how is "halt all execution and scheduled future execution of scripts in the current tab" not a solved problem for mainstream browsers? Or maybe it is and somehow I missed it?

[vthriller]

Not exactly that, but with Firefox you can tweak dom.min_background_timeout_value so scripts in the background tabs could be invoked even less often than they already are. (Chrome does the same, but its minimal timeout value is, unfortunately, hard-coded.)

[technomancy]

Fantastic; thanks!

[caf]

I'd be happy with "tabs not visible go into stasis".

[angry-hacker]

Vivaldi hibernates background tabs natively. Can't remember the details. There are extensions, but they just swap the site with static page.

[jmiserez]

There are some FF extensions that do just that, but some sites break as they're not expecting it.

[caf]

Wouldn't those same sites break in exactly the same way if you were browsing them on a mobile browser and switched temporarily away to another app? Or suspended/resumed your desktop?